Edmunds.com | Inside Line | Auto Observer Your Account | Help | Directory
You are here:
![[F]](http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/12h/www.edmunds.com/media/townhall/webxicons/site.gif){kind=small}
Forums
Smart Shopper Purchasing Motorhomes
190 messages, Last post on Aug 31, 2009 at 7:28 PM
You are in the Smart Shopper Forum. Your Hosts are kirstie_h & tidester
|
Filling up the RV at $4.59 a gallon with a 150 gallon tank is not for the light-wallet'ed! LOL! I can manage 1,200 miles to a tank if I run it near empty but I start looking for fuel at half a tank try to never let it get below a quarter. Slowing down to 55-60 has help add 1.5 miles to the gallon giving me a solid 8.0 mpg avg. It happened.... While in New Orleans a couple of weeks ago, I had to empty my tanks and attach the Honda CR-V in a down-pouring rain. I put the front cover on the Honda the night before so that saved me from having to mess with that in the rain. It really wasn't that bad. Once I finished all the closing procedures and connected the toad, I just toweled off and put on dry clothes and off we went.  Mark
|
|
|
Replying to: mark156 (May 26, 2008 5:56 pm) -mike
|
|
|
Replying to: paisan (May 26, 2008 6:12 pm) Mark |
|
|
Just got back from a trip to Canada driving around Lake Superior. Wow, it was beautiful! Thank goodness I didn't have to buy diesel there as I filled up in Minnesota and didn't need fuel until we entered Michigan. I did need to buy fuel for the Honda and it was $1.41 a liter.... so, that works out to $5.34 a gallon!!! Funny thing though, diesel seemed to be the same prices as regular unleaded. The most I paid on the 3,500 mile trip was $4.99 a gallon. I've slowed down to 55-58 and I'm getting about 8.5 mpg's which is not bad weighing in at 40,000 lbs and pulling a 3,400 lb Honda. Seeing this country by motorhome just can't be beat. I'll look back in 20 yrs and say, "I'm glad I traveled when gas was cheap"!! LOL! Mark156 |
|
|
|
|
When I saw this topic pop up again I thought to myself, who would be dumb enough to spend all that money on a motorhome with gas at $4 and diesel at$5? That's just crazy. But now I wonder if buying one now might be a very smart move. I mean, right now the dealers are probably throwing themselves in front of your car to get you to stop and look at their products. You could get one heck of a deal. This could be similar to the strategy of buying a big gas guzzling SUV and parking it in your driveway until gas prices go down.
|
|
|
Replying to: oldfarmer50 (Jul 30, 2008 2:29 am) Remember also that although the cost of fuel for each trip may be high, most RVs (especially Class As) do a very low annual mileage compared to most cars, making the price of gas a minor consideration when it comes to total cost of ownership. |
|
|
Replying to: oldfarmer50 (Jul 30, 2008 2:29 am) You would think the dealers were falling all over themselves making deals but what I've been reading on the RV sites is that dealers are not giving huge discounts. Sounds crazy to me but what do I know! I guess the market is tightening up so they try to squeeze as much profit per unit as they can. Word has it that since several RV manufactures have gone out of business in the last few months (Alpha Leisure, Travel Supreme, National RV) and Monaco is closing most of their plants in Indiana keeping their main plant in Coburg, OR, where I took delivery of my coach, that used units will keep a very strong price in the next few years. I bought my motorhome taking delivery in April 2007 (it's a 2008). I have almost 17,000 mile on it now and will start a 2,000 mile trip in 3 weeks heading back to California. Mac is right, gas is not the biggest expense when you look at the whole picture. I have a rolling suite (king bed, leather seating, dishwasher, washer and dryer and a full size fridge). We never have to unpack, can eat our own food or go out, we are completely self-contained if needed..... so, I'm happy! Mark156
|
|
|
Replying to: mark156 (Jul 30, 2008 3:59 pm) That is the opposite of what I heard after stopping by a large RV dealership last week. I was told they are selling two of their diesel-pusher motorhomes for $9K and $12K LESS than what they paid for them, and they recently sold one for a $15K loss. These are RVs in the $150K range, so the market may be different for premium coaches like your Monaco. Just like with trucks and SUVs, dealers are not trying to "squeeze as much profit per unit as they can", they are simply praying they can unload these dinosaurs at a loss before the market goes away completely, and they are left with a lot full of vehicles and no buyers. There is literally almost NO traffic/potential buyers for these vehicles right now. Dealers can either choose to take a few thousand dollar loss to get rid of the inventory, or be stuck with these vehicles forever and lose $150K. |
|
|
Mattqq1, I know, it seems crazy that a dealer would let a unit sit on the lot depreciating everyday but some dealers will allow it. It always surprises me that car dealers allow the same thing. I was at a Nissan dealer a few years ago and they had a two year old NEW Pathfinder. I was thinking what went wrong with that unit that it didn't sell. It looked normal to me, nothing really unusual about it! RV customers are a whole different breed than a car customer. And too, RV's are homes to live in, not just transportation. Fuel prices are not the only issue that has effected that market, it's credit availability (which I think was more of a factor). Part of the problem too is that home prices are down so people can't get their equity out to buy a RV. A dealer will not stay in business very long selling below cost. Mark
|
|
|
Replying to: mark156 (Jul 31, 2008 1:25 pm) My thoughts exactly. "I'm selling it to you at below my cost" is hardly a new sales pitch. |
|
You are here:
Forums
Smart Shopper Purchasing Motorhomes
